Among the questions hundreds of research projects are attempting to answer are these: How will students "use their bodies and minds to learn what will be important in the 21st century, such as collaboration, scientific argumentation, mathematical reasoning, computational thinking, creative expression, design thinking and civic engagement?"

Viewpoint

Educators typically have mixed views on their school's IT staff — to put it mildly. In order to better understand IT staff's priorities, responsibilities and resources, we lunched with them recently. Our eyes were opened by those conversations!

Some state legislators were listening last year when a report from Education Northwest encouraged the use of grade point averages and school work in helping to determine how "college-ready" prospective students were.

Quests lays a teacher's existing lesson plan over a fantasy world that students traverse by completing assignments, or quests. Completing each task, which may be an assignment, discussion, in-class activity or something else, unlocks the next.

Each micro-credential starts with an overview of a construct or idea in personalized learning supported by research to help educators gain a deeper understanding of its importance in the learning process.

What does $200 million in school reform buy you? Improved English scores and no big change in math achievement. That's the bottom line offered in a working paper issued by the National Bureau of Economic Research, which examined an education transformation project in Newark Public Schools.

Among the topics: how to identify the "big ideas" worth exploring and personalize them; how to do 360-degree recording and handle pre-production, production and post-production; and how to share the film "with the world" and assess its impact. There's also an educator resource on integrating video production into the curriculum.

Time, planning and support from schools and districts and ongoing professional development are key to getting the most of new technologies and tools introduced to the classroom, according to a new report from the Foundation for Blended and Online Learning.

Upcoming K–12 Grants

Sponsor: Toshiba America Foundation
Award: Two categories: Up to $5,000 and more than $5,000
Number of Awards: Not specified
Application Deadline: Up to $5,000 awarded on a rolling basis; Nov. 1 deadline for applications for more than $5,000

Sponsor: SparkFun
Award: STEM/STEAM-releated prize packages, event and team sponsorships and other types of support
Number of Awards: Varies
Application Deadline: Ongoin: third Thursday of each month; awards announced on the last business day of each month

Deadline: Ongoing
Award: No more than 10 percent of an organization's annual operating expenses or 25 percent of the total budget for the project being funded; awards have ranged from the hundreds to the millions of dollars.
Number of Awards: Varies
Qualification: Project should "directly serve or impact children living in urban poverty, particularly in the areas of education, family economic stability (including microfinance) and childhood health."

Professional Resources

Blended learning is one of the most exciting developments in education in recent years, showing the promise to improve student learning through the combination of technology and face-to-face interaction with teachers. THE Blended Classroom, a new newsletter from the editors of THE Journal, is published twice monthly.

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